Thursday, October 19, 2006

Apple yesterday admitted that they shipped a number of iPods to customers with a Windows worm on them, which infected several customers' PCs.

Instead of simply issuing a standard press release, Apple instead decided to throw in a dig at Microsoft:

As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it.

Jon Poon, who works for Microsoft scanning its software before it's released, was quick to respond:

Instead of focusing on how and why it was even included in the first place, the company that published a series of video ads, including this one, actual try to divert the blame on the Windows platform!

It's not a matter of which platform that the virus originated. The fact that it's found on the portable player means that there's an issue with how the quality checks, specifically the content check was done. This also indicates that through the manufacturing cycle, the base device from which the image was duplicated to the other devices in the manufacturing run, was connected to a PC that most probably did not have , and i quote their press release, "up to date anti-virus software which is included with most Windows computers".

Mr. Poon is absolutely correct. Apple's attempt to try to shift partial blame onto Microsoft, even if in jest, simply comes across as being unprofessional.